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Google has changed the "Products" link in the main Google navigation bar from "Products" to "Shopping" last night. Here is a picture:
You can see, just a couple days ago, the link said "Products." Around Thanksgiving time, Google replaced the Video links with Products, we guess in anticipation of the holidays. Maybe the word "Products" didn't give them the click through they were looking for. So now they are giving "Shopping" a try.
Clicking on the shopping link, still takes you to Google Product Search. Originally, Google Product Search was named Froogle but that was changed back on September 25 of last year. All these name changes: Froogle ---> Google Base ---> Google Product Search ---> Google Shopping, what is next?
It still seems Google has not changed the name of the search vertical. It just seems they changed the link in the navigation from Products to Shopping.
Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.
Comments:
Martin Porcheron
12/14/2007 04:29 pm
Google Base is a seperate product that still exists.
No Name
12/18/2007 03:59 pm
Agreed. Froogle was never renamed "Google Base". Google Base simply became the service through which product feeds could be uploaded to appear on Froogle. Google Base also encompasses all other verticals in terms of data feeds, and continues to remain a distinct service of its own. Froogle was renamed Google Product Search for two reasons. For one, many people didn't get the "Froogle" name. Secondly, Universal Search was right around the corner... to it made since to take away special branding and use the more generic term to represent the vertical that it was. The change of the link to "shopping" isn't a rename of the service, just a link change. The link to Gmail has been just Mail in the past as well. They likely ran a test with some users seeing Products and other users seeing Shopping and they probably found a higher click through rate with the Shopping link, so they switched that on for all.